After DMK chief's flip flop, Cong says LTTE is terrorist group

NEW DELHI: After DMK chief M Karunanidhi's remark that he did not see LTTE leader V Prabhakaran as a terrorist, Congress on Monday said the Tamil outfit in Sri Lanka continues to be a proscribed terrorist organisation.

"Congress and the UPA have not wavered for the past several months on the issue. Our stand is that Prabhakaran is a terrorist and the LTTE a proscribed and banned terrorist organisation," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.

Karunanidhi initially said he did not see LTTE leader Prabhakaran as a terrorist and today clarified that the Tamil organisation started as a liberation group and later became an extremist outfit.

"LTTE was not started as an extremist organisation like the Naxalite movement. It was started as a liberation movement but later became an extremist organisation," Karunanidhi told reporters elaborating on his remarks on the LTTE which he made in an interview to a TV channel yesterday.

Singhvi said in case Prabhakaran is caught in the island nation, he has to be extradited to India.